by
Chaplain Steve SullivanThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

12:00 PM, Friday, June 29 2012 | 3623 views | 10 | |

A service member returns from Iraq and a few weeks later is walking out of a Walmart with his family.

Suddenly, a car backfires, and the soldier reflexively dives behind a car, covering his young son with his body. The next week, his wife screams as her husband swerves their truck violently to his left after seeing an abandoned box on the side of the interstate.

Soldiers returning from combat are often told: “Don’t worry! You are safe at home now, why are you being anxious for nothing?”

The truth is these sudden reactions keep our service members and their buddies alive in Iraq and Afghanistan. But at home, they just become a source of embarrassment or misunderstanding to family and friends. They can even become a symptom of combat stress or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that affects about one in five of all those returning from our wars.

We all worry and are anxious about something. Sometimes we are guilty of truly being anxious about nothing, certainly nothing we should really worry about. But much of the time, we worry with good reason.

Like those who serve our country in combat, we worry about important things we care about — our kids, our grades, our health, our marriages, and how we are going to pay the bills. These are important issues that deserve our concern, but do not benefit from our anxiety.

In Philippians 4: 6-7, Paul admonishes us to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.” Learning to slow your mind down and read peacefully just after a dangerous and traumatic deployment takes time. Learning to control our worries and anxieties that face all of us every day takes time and effort.

Being patient with ourselves and others is hugely important as we learn to turn our anxieties over to God. God doesn’t promise us a completely worry-free life, but these verses in Philippians do end with a tremendous promise. This promise is a prayer that I leave for all of our returning soldiers and for each of you today, that “the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Chaplain Sullivan meets the first Wednesday of every month with the Russellville faith community to help support and connect Veterans and their families. For more info, email him at steve.sullivan@va.gov